Monday, September 19, 2005

Ex Machina: Molly's opinion

"--Half of the entries you make in that thing are just conversations we've had and you, like, condense them."

"Well, kinda."

"Don't 'kinda' me. They're conversations we fucking had; you can't tell me I'm not right. It's just like that goddamn play you wrote in high school."

"Oh Christ, let's not talk about that."

"It was all just fucking IM conversations we had on AOL. And you were all, 'Yeah, I use things from my real life.' Those were my real words, asshole! And you never copped to it!"

"Heh."

"Thank God you didn't do anything with that fucking play."

"Well, I did submit it to the One-Acts competition."

"Well thank God it lost."

"Okay, babe. You've got a point. Why don't you tell the people what you thought of the second trade of Ex Machina, 'Tag'?"

"Fine, I will then. Brian K. Vaughan kinda pissed me off with the first issue of the series; it wasn't that I thought it was offensive to play on 9/11 or anything - it just seemed cheap, a lame way of charging the book. I mean, who's not gonna have a charged reaction to that kind of reference? It's the kind of gesture that writers make when they don't have any real talent, and I thought that was a dumb move on Vaughan's part because he is a talented writer. So the combination seemed smug somehow, and even though it was written with skill I could appreciate, there was something about the personality behind it that bugged me.

"The second trade is a big improvement, I think. Vaughan's trivia-as-dialogue tick is either more subdued here or simply matches the subject matter more naturally; while it bugs the hell out of me in Y: The Last Man, it seems to work here. I like the cast, and I'm surprised to find the political discussions don't irritate me the way they often do in this sort of context; maybe it's because everyone calls each other on their bullshit pretty often. I like bullshit calling.

"The mysteries we're getting are also all pretty interesting. I'm digging how the artifact at the center of Mayor Hundred's powers has several different levels of intrigue - it's got questions coming out of every hole, and I'm hoping (and expecting) the answers will tie together in a similarly cohesive fashion. I guess what really makes this work is that it reads very much like a story with a beginning, middle and end, and so everything feels tight and crisp.

"And Tony Harris is the fucking man. Photorealistic art tends to really bug me, but Harris tweaks the style with enough of his own touch that it completely works. The grossout panels and splash pages are really powerfully grotesque. The characters are expressive and have a wide variety of facial expressions - the 'acting' here is really strong. It's just remarkable work and it's got me interested in checking out Starman, Harris' other long form comics work."

"Thank you, baby. Now I don't have to write my own entry in the blog today! I'll just use what you said!"

"Wait, what? Hey, you fucker - I didn't say any of that! I didn't even read Ex Machina past the first issue! Okay, so I guess I might've said that first part, but the rest is all words in my mouth. Who the fuck do you think you are?"

3 Comments:

"Fine, I will then. Brian K. Vaughan kinda pissed me off with the first issue of the series; it wasn't that I thought it was offensive to play on 9/11 or anything - it just seemed cheap, a lame way of charging the book. I mean, who's not gonna have a charged reaction to that kind of reference? It's the kind of gesture that writers make when they don't have any real talent, and I thought that was a dumb move on Vaughan's part because he is a talented writer. So the combination seemed smug somehow, and even though it was written with skill I could appreciate, there was something about the personality behind it that bugged me."